finishing grit

Usually Spyderco fine or UF for my pocket knives these days, though sometimes I can't resist a .05 micron bragging edge. If I get a particularly good edge with the DMT Coarse or Spyderco Medium I stop there sometimes as well, but generally I need to go to at least Spyderco fine to get it sharp enough for my liking (whittling hair nicely). With my kitchen knives, it is almost always beyond 8K, usually to .05 micron.

Mike
 
On my utility edges I use progressive grits starting with 600 grit DMT and stop with my Bester 1200 and strop with Cr02 on leather.

On my fine slicing edges I use progressive grit waterstones starting with my Bester 1200 and stop with my Norton 8000 and strop with Cr02 on leather.

On my Convex edges I use progressive grit closed cell wet/dry sand paper on a padded piece of Pergo flooring and stop with my Pinnacle 9000 honing film and strop with Cr02 on leather.

NJ
 
I rarely go beyond XF DMT (1200 grit, I think around 9 microns), but when I do its mostly on my sak's which I strop on a 2x4-backed leather loaded with mothers chrome and mag polish. Really puts a boss edge on there, but removes such little metal you better have that thing sharp before you even think about stropping.
 
I knives, I either stop at a 1,000 grit Shapton Glasstone or go all of the way to 0.3 micron lapping film.

Lately, I've been touching up my main chef knife with the fine side of a Spyderco Double-Stuff ceramic and it's good to go for a long time with both veggie cutting and stuff like tree-topping arm-hair and pushcutting paper. And my pocketknives have been seeing 15 micron and 5 micron lapping film wetted with Purell and then finished on leather loaded with 0.7 micron boron carbide. Kershaw's 13C26 loves that sort of treatment (my ET's bragging edge stays braggable after breaking down boxes) and Cold Steel's AUS-8A, well, did I tell you my ET is very sharp?

Outside of surgery, precision woodcarving, and fabricating fish, I don't know of any realistic reason to go beyond 400-1000 grit. I don't whittle as often as I should and don't craft sashimi, so my edges are overkilll because that's just what I like.
 
I finish every knife with a 1 and .5 micron paste on leather. The only part of the sharpening process that usually changes is the use of my ultra fine spyderco ceramic, but this also depends on the steel.

I like all knives to be sharp, there is a big difference in cutting performance between stopping at 9 microns and stopping at .5 microns.
 
I use a microbevel and finish at Spyderco fine 95% of the time. I am usually happy with sharpness at this finish and it doesn't take long to do.

The other 5% I finish at either Spyderco medium if I am in a hurry or sharpening a beater or someone else's knife, or I go to UF if I am in the mood for a little extra.
 
i finish to 1200 grit wet/dry and then take it to a strop...either tripoli on leather or .5 micron film on mousepad backing.

when i'm sharpening other people's knives, i finish to a 9 micron belt (around 1200 grit) followed by power strop and then hand strop.

i want to get some paper up to 2000 grit just for giggles, but i am happy with my edges as they are.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top